President-elect Barack Obama today unveiled the economic advisers he has tapped to help the US recover from a debilitating credit crisis and foreclosure epidemic. They may not be a "team of rivals", the term used to describe Hillary Clinton's arrival at the state department, but today's cast of aides is full of assertive, bold personalities.

Timothy Geithner, treasury secretary

The 47-year-old chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank in New York is widely admired in Washington for his cool head under pressure and his ability to operate on a bipartisan basis.

But his central role in crafting the Bush administration's tumultuous $700bn financial bail-out could make for an awkward confirmation as Congress examines Geithner's relatively short record. His April debut on the political scene came days after the New York Fed rushed out a $30bn loan to expedite JP Morgan's purchase of flailing Bear Stearns.

"By reducing the probability of a systemic financial crisis, the actions taken by the Fed [to help JP Morgan buy up Bear] have helped avert substantial damage to the economy," Geithner told the Senate banking committee in a high-profile hearing.

Seven months later, senators may press Geithner to defend those words, as Citigroup becomes the latest imploding Wall Street titan to line up for a quick government rescue. He may also be asked to weigh in on the treasury department's controversial decision to allow Lehman Brothers to go bankrupt in September.

"It is generally believed that Geithner would have bailed out Lehman Brothers, according to street gossip and some news speculations [although this has never been definitively confirmed]," CNBC markets analyst Larry Kudlow wrote on his blog this week.

Geithner ascended to the New York Fed in 2003 after working at the International Monetary Fund following a stint as undersecretary of the treasury for international affairs under Lawrence Summers, the Clinton-era treasury secretary who will also join Obama's team.

He is an undisputed expert on Asian economic policy, having lived in India, Thailand, Japan, and China after earning a masters' degree in East Asian studies and international economics. Geithner stands to become the first treasury secretary since James Baker III – who served under Ronald Reagan – without a doctoral degree or experience running a major Wall Street firm.

Lawrence Summers, head of the National Economic Council (NEC)

This former treasury secretary, who celebrates his 54th birthday on Sunday, brings an imperious and formidable style to the role that Bill Clinton created in 1993 to guide fiscal policy from the White House.

Speculating about Summers' role in the incoming administration had become a Washington parlour game, with most agreeing that his colourful past ruled out a return to leading the treasury department.

Summers was forced to resign from the presidency of Harvard University in 2006 after he suggested that women lack men's innate ability to excel at math and science. Harvard faculty reportedly chafed under his brash, self-aggrandising leadership style.

Summers also fell from favour with environmentalists amid reports of a 1991 memo he wrote while serving at the World Bank. The memo argued that poorer nations are better equipped to bear the economic opportunity costs of soaring pollution.

Taking the post of NEC chairman gives Summers a hand in most decisions made by Geithner, who was his subordinate during the Clinton years, without pushing him to play the high-profile pitchman for Obama's financial policy.

Though he may not be the best public face for Obama's changing of the guard, Summers is a forceful advocate for expanding the Wall Street rescue to resuscitate the US economy as a whole.

"We need to overreact on the side of stimulus, overreact on the side of capital infusion if we are to restore confidence going forward, and the next president will have a historic opportunity to do that," Summers said in a Boston speech last month.

Peter Orszag, director of the Office of Management and Budget

The OMB, as it is known in the US capital, extends its reach into every branch of the government by evaluating the economic impact of new regulations. Its biggest solo act is the writing (and often public selling) of the president's annual budget plan.

Obama's choice to lead OMB is a 40-year-old wunderkind who has spent the past two years leading the Congressional Budget Office, the mini-think tank that provides cost estimates for most legislation considered by the US Congress. Orszag has won praise for his performance there and is likely to face an easy confirmation.

Christina Romer, Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) chairman

Romer, an economics professor at the University of California – Berkeley, provides a powerful female voice on the fiscal team. As head of the CEA, Romer will lead a team that provides academic and impartial feedback on Obama's economic agenda.

Along with her husband, fellow Berkeley economist David Romer, she holds a post on the independent panel that decides when to formally rule that a downturn has become a recession – experience that will surely come in handy next year.

The Romers have offered monetary policy suggestions to Obama since his presidential campaign began. In a recent interview for Berkeley's website, David Romer recalled the couple's work on early economic talking points for then-candidate Obama.

"We were told that he wanted something more researched and better documented," David Romer said. "Of course we sent back more material – with footnotes."

The same interview also featured a telling observation by Christina Romer on the potential of tax cuts to successfully stimulate the US economy. "It turns out," she told Berkeley's interviewer, "that tax cuts have led, eventually, to tax increases. Basically, something has to give."